A Single Mom's Journey to Freedom

Tag Archives: Yoga

Hello again folks. Well, here goes my latest update: “30 Days of Yoga” is over. Not because it was too hard or I was bored or anything but because I’ve started school again and so have my children so I haven’t gotten the hang of our adjusted schedules as of yet. I may or may not take it back up and/or notify the community of it (just saying).

Anywho, I wanted to share the impact that a particular class I’m taking has had on me just in this first week. The class is Interpersonal Relationships. The official course description goes like this: This course provides a study of personal growth and development through student discussion of interpersonal relationships and utilization of vital life skills such as dynamic, pro-active communication skills (verbal and non-verbal); active listening and response skills; and conflict resolution techniques. This course explores how to manage feelings; interpret human behavior, feelings, and stress; and overcome barriers to communication.

So this class is basically “Life 101.”

I had this professor for my Literature class and I loved it/him! So he mentioned that he had this Interpersonal Relationships course and I was hooked. I am always trying to find ways to improve myself and I thought that this would be a great addition. There are lots of people who wouldn’t bother taking this class because it’s not a requirement but just from what I’ve learned so far, I think it should be. Our first night we watched a video by Dr. Leo Buscaglia. If you haven’t watched or read anything by him you should check out YouTube. I think this man was the epitome of an angel and that he must have blessed many people with his messages on love. You can truly see how he loved people (he had a nickname of Dr. Love).

I feel that our society doesn’t take enough time to emphasize the importance of educating ourselves on life situations and what it means to be human. I think that the focus has shifted so intensely to traditional education such as reading, writing and math that this world has simply become too busy to worry about things like feelings, emotions and how we treat one another. We’ve separated ourselves and made our feelings seem unimportant. We’ve become so engrossed with nourishing our intellect that we’ve forgotten the importance of nurturing our souls. We don’t share our pain or struggle with others because we don’t want people to think that we’re too emotionally “high maintenance.” We only share our highs and mask our lows. Then we ostracize anyone who has these lows and tell them to get over it and pick themselves up instead of telling them how we have also hurt and how we can relate. (Sadly, I have been guilty of this as well.)

We’ve created this fake society of non-feeling people. Ones who don’t have time to listen to beautiful music, watch a play or just admire works of art. Humanities, music and art courses/classes are the first to go whenever there are school budget cuts. Before I even started this course I’ve been working on getting to know me as a person. For so many years I only wanted to focus on pleasing my partners and bending to their will in order to keep them happy. I’m still a work in progress but I feel much better about myself now and know that I don’t have to bend over backwards for anyone’s attention. I want to learn to love people without having my life depend on whether or not they love me back. I’ve been reading tons of books, watching lots of movies, and am trying everything I can to fill myself with all the knowledge I desire not only the knowledge required by our institutions. I think overall taking a course like this will help me become a better person which is my ultimate goal.

Hopefully, I can continue to share more of what I learn in this course and life in general. Thanks for reading.

Hello all. I apologize for not posting my progress yesterday. I did well with my Yoga and meditation, however, hit a snag in my life later on that evening. This snag has continued into today and unfortunately I’ve allowed it to interrupt my flow. I know I shouldn’t allow this, however, it has currently tied me up both physically and mentally. I feel that it is very important to take special care of this issue before moving on. I wish I was brave enough to share it with you all but I am not at that point yet. I will do my best to recover from this quickly and try to get back to my Yoga endeavors. Until then I may or may not be posting any blogs. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Well today marks my first day trying out Yoga. I meditated for about 15 minutes prior to starting (something else I’ve decided to start simultaneously), however, I have some mixed emotions about how it went. I searched on YouTube and there were quite a few “Yoga for beginners” videos. I tried a few and I think I’ve found the one I liked the most. Below I will list my likes and dislikes about my first Yoga experience.

Likes:

Being that I was watching these videos on YouTube there was plenty of variety therefore I was able to check as many as I wanted out prior to starting. I felt very relaxed and really had a sense of peace during and after my session. I can see the benefits of starting an exercise routine like this.

Dislikes:

I don’t have the proper equipment/gear to be able to perform some of the poses (i.e., yoga mat, belt, etc.). I also, couldn’t get the kids quiet enough for me to concentrate and focus on what I was doing. I realize that these “dislikes” have nothing to do with actual Yoga and more to do with me.

Overall I think it was great and I will keep on going and chronicle my journey along the way. As always any comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated. 🙂

This has been my mantra for the past couple of days. Sorry for skipping out on yesterday’s post (and Thursday’s as well). Just for catch up; Thursday was a serious workout day for me and my family. We all stretched and walked to the park, played some basketball, through the football around, tossed the frisbee back and forth, jogged around the park then walked back home. After that we went to the pool and swam for a few hours until our muscles were killing us.

Then in the afternoon a took another walk at another park with the BF where we were able to catch up a little (we don’t get to see each other much).

Anywho, yesterday we took a little break and this evening there is a back to school pool party splash bash in which we will, again, swim until our muscles ache.

I am about 97% sure that I will start my 30 days of Yoga countdown on Monday, however, it’s still not confirmed because I need to find a Yoga source. By this I mean that I don’t have any Yoga video or affordable Yoga classes in town but if I have to YouTube it I will!

Well I said this would be quick and it is because I snuck away from the kids (who are currently waiting for me to start the DVD we’re supposed to be watching together) in order to give you guys an update.

Ok folks! I am on a roll! I took, yet another, 20 minute walk this morning and did well with controlling my portions yesterday. Feeling really good about myself right now 🙂

Can’t wait til Monday when I officially start with the yoga. My oldest son even gave it a try. I thought at first he would see it as “girly” and “soft” but after he tried it he realized that there is a level of difficulty to it, so in a way yoga has earned his respect.

I would love some feedback from the audience on some easy, healthy meal ideas. I say easy because I know if it’s something that’s going to take an eternity to create it’s just not going to happen.

Hope to hear from you soon!

P.S. I am curvalicious right now, however, I will post pics once my curves are a bit more tamed! 🙂

Hello again everyone. A few posts ago I was rambling on about countdowns. How, in my opinion, these were the most interesting types of blogs to follow. It’s almost like watching a soap opera, you just can’t wait to find out what happens tomorrow! Any who, I was dabbling with this idea after seeing a video about a man who was disabled and couldn’t walk without the help of knee braces and forearm crutches. This man was able to rehabilitate himself after starting yoga and now he can walk unassisted.

So I’ve checked out some websites, some YouTube videos and I’m gonna do a little more research but I may give this a shot. Maybe an even crazier idea might be to have a different countdown every 30 days. Maybe Yoga this month and recipes next month, I don’t know, I haven’t thought that far yet.

I am overweight, wouldn’t mind getting more flexible and would love to be able to run. This man’s video inspired me to make a change in my life and maybe by combining it with my blog I could have some kind of accountability. I’m going to take a little walk later on this evening and give this a little more thought. If I decide to go through with this hopefully I can have some followers encourage me along the way. Who knows maybe I can have a sort of virtual group of people doing the same, that way we can encourage each other? Either way this is gonna be a great exercise (no pun intended).

By the way, I’m not that great at adding links so if you want to see the video I’m referring to, go to YouTube and search for Never, ever give up. Arthur’s Inspirational Transformation! I thought, if this man can do it with difficulty walking, I should be thankful that I have full use of my legs (and entire body for that matter) get out there and do this for myself!